Sat.Dec 15, 2018 - Fri.Dec 21, 2018

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2018: The Year Of Evolution In Payments’ Revolution

PYMNTS

In life, change is the only constant, so why should it be different for payments? From cash to digital, from plastic cards to mobile wallets, from cash registers at the front of restaurants to tablets brought to tables (redefining the concept of “dine and dash”) — the way we pay shifts along with the availability of technology, and tech shifts as commerce demands new features.

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Investing Lessons from Bill Browder

CFA Institute

Bill Browder’s message to security analysts is stark: The truly outstanding practitioner is a solitary creature who works in a depopulated landscape, where they just might stumble across real opportunity.

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Big Tech Companies Throw Support Behind Fed Creating Real-Time Payments Network

PYMNTS

Amazon , Apple and Google are among the large tech companies that are throwing their support behind the creation of a real-time payments network in the U.S. led by the Federal Reserve. According to a report in the American Banker citing a letter submitted by a trade group representing Amazon, Apple, Google, PayPal , Square , Stripe and Intuit , they all expressed their support for the Fed being in charge of the development of a system that can connect all the banks and credit unions in the U.S

Banking 83
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Facebook Data Breach Fines Could Top $1B

PYMNTS

Facebook , the beleaguered social media giant that is facing intense scrutiny into its business practices, could be on the hook for a multibillion dollar fine, reported CNN. According to the report citing the Irish Data Protection Commission, Facebook is under investigation by the regulator over allegations it failed to protect the privacy of its users.

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From Start to Scale: Driving Growth Through Seamless Payments Implementation

Speaker: Michael Veatch, Senior Director, Implementations & Ella Aguirre, Director of Solution Consulting

Embedding payments can be a transformative step for software companies looking to enhance their platform capabilities, boost customer satisfaction, and drive long-term growth. However, the success of payments hinges on a single thing: implementation. Drawing on real-world insights and experiences, payments implementation experts Michael Veatch and Ella Aguirre will explore actionable strategies that can lead to a transparent, friction-free launch and mitigate potential challenges like technical

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How Open Banking Opens Doors For Alternative SMB Lenders

PYMNTS

Use of alternative finance (AltFin) sources among small business (SMB) owners is on the rise, but still has a long way to go before it poses a legitimate threat to traditional banks’ market dominance. Mercator Advisory Group data released earlier this year found that 27 percent of small businesses in the U.S. have already used an alternative lending platform, particularly among younger entrepreneurs.

Banking 78

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Uber Faces Fine From France For 2016 Data Breach

PYMNTS

The French Data Protection Authority said Thursday (Dec. 20) that it fined Uber $460,000 over its 2016 data breach that exposed the data on 57 million customers and drivers across the world. Uber paid hackers to hide the breach for about a year before it was disclosed. According to a report in Moneycontrol.com , the French Data Protection Authority said the data breach could have been prevented by implementing “certain elementary security measures.” The French government joins a grow

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Hackers Can Unlock Phones Via 3D Printing

PYMNTS

There’s a new method hackers can use to break into someone’s smartphone: create a 3D-print life-size replica of the owner’s head. To show how the method can work, Forbes reporter Thomas Brewster had a 3D print of his own head created at Backface in Birmingham, U.K. He then used his real-life head to set up facial recognition on five phones, including the iPhone X and four Android devices: an LG G7 ThinQ, a Samsung S9, a Samsung Note 8 and a OnePlus 6.

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Morgan Stanley Takes Steps To Make FinTech Partnering Easier

PYMNTS

Morgan Stanley wants to make it easier to acquire new tech from startups as well as pick up the pace of collaboration amid concerns from FinTechs that partnering with big banks can be slow and expensive. According to a report in Reuters citing Shawn Melamed, Morgan Stanley’s head of technology business development and innovation office, Melamed said the company is streamlining documentation and expanding the instances where executives can look at new products in an effort to improve partn

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Robinhood Retreats From Checking, Savings Products

PYMNTS

Robinhood , the FinTech that garnered a lot of attention last week after announcing a checking and savings product with 3 percent interest, has retreated from that, removing any mention of checking and savings from the product. According to a report in Bloomberg , when Robinhood announced the products last week , it compared them to traditional bank accounts, boasting a 3 percent interest rate on both checking and savings.

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Less Stress, More Success: Accounting Best Practices & Processes for 2025

Speaker: Amanda Adams, Fractional CFO, CPA

Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Amanda Adams, a seasoned fractional CFO and CPA passionate about transforming back-office operations for finance teams. This session will cover critical best practices and process improvements tailored specifically for accounting professionals.

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Lloyds Tells Brokers To Go Digital In 2019 Or Go Home

PYMNTS

Lloyd’s of London has announced that it might impose a ban on insurance brokers who refuse to digitalize their business in 2019. In a press release , the company revealed that starting next year “each syndicate will be required to have written no less than 40 percent of its risks using a recognized electronic placement system with the target increasing to 50% in Q2.

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The Consumer’s Role In Battling Fraud

PYMNTS

You don’t always have to go out on a limb in payments to make an accurate prediction of things to come. Take the transition to EMV in the U.S., as Damon Moorer, president and CEO at TCM Bank N.A., told PYMNTS in a recent interview. Before the liability shift in 2015, the industry-wide prediction was that the onset of EMV would reduce occurrences of counterfeit card fraud in-store, but that the industry should expect to see a spike in card-not-present (CNP) fraud as fraudsters moved to easier ta

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Affirm’s Levchin On Changing The Consumer Credit Conversation

PYMNTS

The conversation about credit in the U.S. has become one of extremes. There is a growing chorus of voices that eschew credit as a “dangerous trap” that lures consumers into spending more than they can afford, in part, they say, because credit products are designed to make repayment expensive and therefore difficult. Avoiding that trap, they advocate, means consumers should avoid credit entirely — limiting purchases to only what they can afford to pay in full with funds on hand.

Retail 74
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Square On The Magic Of Holiday Hiring

PYMNTS

The holiday season always brings with it a major crush of hiring for temporary employees — and the year 2018 was widely forecasted to be one for the record books on that account. According to a Challenger, Gray & Christmas analysis, employers were predicted to bring in around 700,000 seasonal workers for the December holidays, the biggest hiring spree since 2015.

Sales 74
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Avoiding Lease Accounting Pitfalls in 2025: Lessons Learned from Spreadsheet Errors

Speaker: Abdi Ali, Sr. Lease Accounting Consultant

Join this insightful webinar with industry expert Abdi Ali, who will discuss the challenges that can arise from managing lease accounting with spreadsheets! He will share real-world examples of errors, compliance issues, and risks that may be present within your spreadsheets. Learn how these tools, while useful, can sometimes lead to inefficiencies that affect your time, resources, and peace of mind.

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PSD2 Is Coming — Are Merchants Ready?

PYMNTS

From using instant messaging to getting directions and shopping online, consumers are constantly generating a trail of data about their preferences and whereabouts. However, while all that happens in the background, consumers are growing increasingly wary of how their data is collected and stored. With data breaches making headlines almost every other day, consumers want to know that their data is being protected, and that it’s not being used in ways they don’t approve.

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Grab May See $1B Investment From SoftBank Vision Fund

PYMNTS

Southeast Asia’s Grab might be in for more funding: SoftBank’s Vision Fund may invest $1 billion in the ride-hailing company, according to The Telegraph , and is reportedly nearing a deal. Grab has notched $2.7 billion in funding this year alone and has raised more than $6 billion overall. SoftBank is no stranger to Grab: The firm made a $250 million investment in the firm four years ago.

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Third Annual Amazon Digital Day Boasts Deals In The Thousands

PYMNTS

Amazon’s third annual Digital Day, which offers savings on digital content across the site, will be on Dec. 28, the company announced. Interested customers can access digital deals on movies, TV shows, eBooks, mobile games and apps on Amazon ’s Digital Day website. “Amazon Digital Day continues to provide great deals on digital content,” said Aaron Rubenson, Amazon’s vice president of digital, app and game services.

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Microsoft Issues Emergency Internet Explorer Security Update

PYMNTS

Microsoft issued an emergency security update for Internet Explorer after hackers were able to exploit a new flaw in several versions of the browser. “A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that the scripting engine handles objects in memory in Internet Explorer,” the company revealed in a statement. “The vulnerability could corrupt memory in such a way that an attacker could execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user.

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Back to Basics with Reconciliations

Join us in this webinar, where we share best practices on how to think about the reconciliation work each month, when best to do reconciliations, how they should be prepared, and some common pitfalls to avoid. Learning Objectives: This course objective is to understand how to properly prepare and review balance sheet reconciliations and its impact on the financial statements.

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How FinTech Companies Can Connect Buyers And Suppliers

PYMNTS

Payments have been a pain point throughout the evolution of merchants. As commerce globalizes, merchants are left wondering whether they have the payment methods that people want to use through digital channels, while also facing the sheer magnitude of declines. “Merchants have problems with payments in new and broader and deeper ways than they have in a while,” Modo CEO Bruce Parker told PYMNTS in an interview.

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Amazon To Lower Fees For Third-Party Sellers

PYMNTS

Amazon announced on Thursday (Dec. 20) that it’s planning to lower some of the fees it charges to third-party sellers, according to a report from Reuters. The marketplace unit allows third-party sellers, which make up more than 50 percent of all the units Amazon sells, to sell items on Amazon’s site and its app. Analysts at Baird, an investment and financial services company, said the move will benefit customers.

Retail 71
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Bitcoin Surpasses $4K For The First Time In Two Weeks

PYMNTS

Bitcoin, the leading digital currency, is having a bit of a resurgence this week. Surpassing $4,000 for the first time in two weeks, this is seen as a breakout from a decline that has been going on for some time now. According to a report in CNBC , citing CoinDesk, the price of bitcoin gained close to 7 percent in trading on Thursday (Dec. 20) hitting $4,037.

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London FinTech Raises $4M For ‘Social’ Bank

PYMNTS

A financial technology company called B-Social has raised £3.2 million ($4 million) in funding from undisclosed but high net-worth entities, according to reports. The funds are just the ambitious company’s beginning steps toward its goal of becoming a wholly licensed bank — one that completely redefines what banking means and framing it around social interactions.

Banking 70
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Usage-Based Monetization Musts: A Roadmap for Sustainable Revenue Growth

Speaker: David Warren and Kevin O’Neill Stoll

Transitioning to a usage-based business model offers powerful growth opportunities but comes with unique challenges. How do you validate strategies, reduce risks, and ensure alignment with customer value? Join us for a deep dive into designing effective pilots that test the waters and drive success in usage-based revenue. Discover how to develop a pilot that captures real customer feedback, aligns internal teams with usage metrics, and rethinks sales incentives to prioritize lasting customer eng

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Bitcoin Daily: SEC Regs Could Exclude Cryptos; Litecoin Founder Has Eye On Survival

PYMNTS

A bipartisan bill has been introduced by Congress that would aim to amend the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. According to CNBC , Reps. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) and Darren Soto (D-Fla.) introduced the “Token Taxonomy Act,” which would not only redefine “digital token,” but ensure that securities laws would not apply to cryptocurrencies that have become a fully functioning network.

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NASA Gets Hacked

PYMNTS

NASA has suffered a data breach that exposed its employees’ Social Security numbers and other personal information. According to a memo sent Tuesday (Dec. 18) by Assistant Administrator Bob Gibbs, the agency began looking into the breach of its servers on Oct. 23. “Upon discovery of the incidents, NASA cybersecurity personnel took immediate action to secure the servers and the data contained within,” the memo stated. “NASA and its Federal cybersecurity partners are continuing t

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New Products Bolster Nike’s Digital Sales

PYMNTS

With new products bolstering online sales of apparel and footwear, Nike came out ahead of Wall Street quarterly estimates. The company’s stock rose 7 percent on the news on Thursday (Dec. 20), Reuters reported. Nike has grown online retail partnerships over a period of more than a year, and it has also hastened the speed of new item releases. Reuters reported that Nike’s online sales jumped by 41 percent during the quarter and its digital sales increased by over 30 percent “in its home mar

Sales 68
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The ERP Emerges As Top Target For AI Developers

PYMNTS

As far as B2B FinTech goes, much attention has been paid to empowering a range of processes, including accounts payable, expense management and financial analysis — many of which had previously been a part of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. While innovation and digital disruption have taken these financial processes out of the ERP and made them independent platforms for corporate users, the ERP remains a critical component of financial management in the enterprise, particularly

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Solve Your Firm's Automation Complexities Once and For All

Speaker: Mark Stovel

When it comes to automating, many firms focus on finding the latest tech, believing that efficiency is something achieved through new tools. Yet true efficiency is achieved by delivering real value to clients, not merely by upgraded systems. Without a clear approach, no level of automation can overcome the complexities of serving every client’s needs.